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This course deals with the biology and behavior of humankind's
primate relatives. Topics to be covered include taxonomic
diversity and geographic distribution, diet and ecology, functional
anatomy and aspects of the social behavior of living primates.
Fossil representatives of the order will also be considered,
and both paleontological and molecular evidence will be used
to reconstruct the evolutionary history of prosimians and
anthropoids. Monkey and ape social groupings, male and female
interactions, mating patterns and dominance will be discussed
with reference to habitat, diet and predators. Additional
topics to be explored are communication, problem solving and
intelligence, hunting, and "cultural" activities
of chimpanzees.
Lectures will be held regularly for three hours a week, and
some laboratory sessions may be scheduled for work with skeletal
material and fossil casts. Films will be used to supplement
lecture and laboratory presentations. Three written examinations
will be given, but papers are not required.
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I. Systematics and Taxonomy
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A. |
Formal classification and its uses. A classification
of the primates. |
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B. |
Introduction to the living primates, with comments
on geographic range, habitat, activity rhythm, diet and general
morphology. |
II. Functional Morphology of the Living Primates
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A. |
Overview of characters that distinguish primates
from other mammals. Generalized teeth, grasping hands and feet,
greater dependence on vision, an enlarged brain, and efficient
placentation. |
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B. |
Vertebral column. Function of the cervical, thoracic,
lumbar, sacral and caudal regions, and significance of variation. |
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C. |
Limbs and locomotion. The range of locomotor
habits, from clinging and leaping to quadrupedalism to brachiation.
Limb indices and other anatomical correlates. |
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D. |
Hands, feet and opposability. The evolution of
grasping mechanisms. |
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E. |
Skulls and teeth. Comparative anatomy of the braincase
and facial skeleton. Teeth, dental formulas, diet and digestion. |
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F. |
The primate brain. Questions about absolute and
relative size, and basic organization. Evidence for increasing
complexity of the neocortex in anthropoids. |
III. Evolutionary History of the Primates
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A. |
Primate origins early in the Cenozoic. Adapids
and omomyids. The first anthropoids from the Far East, Africa
and South America. Important discoveries from the Fayum in Egypt. |
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B. |
Evolution of anthropoids in the Miocene. Proconsul
and other primitive ape-like primates from East Africa. Dryopithecus
from Europe. Sivapithecus and its relatives from Eurasia. Ouranopithecus
from Greece. |
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C. |
Questions about the ancestry of Asian orangutans,
African gorillas and chimpanzees. Interpreting the evidence
from fossil skulls, teeth and postcranial bones. |
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D. |
Molecular approaches to primate evolution. Proteins,
DNA and family trees. Molecular information used with the fossil
record to reconstruct phylogeny. |
IV. Ecology and Social Organization
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A. |
Monkey societies in the New World. Field studies
of howlers, spider monkeys and titis. Ecological grades. |
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B. |
The cercopithecoids of Africa and Eurasia. Hierarchies
and dominance. Questions about the evolution of behavior. |
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C. |
The Asian apes. Monogamous gibbons and siamangs
of the southeast Asian tropics. Orangutan social organization.
Female groups, young males and solitary mature males of the
Indonesian forests. |
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D. |
African apes. Chimpanzee bands in eastern and
western Africa. Gorilla age-grades. |
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E. |
Communication and intelligence. Tool use and cooperative
hunting. Regional variation in the (cultural?) behavior of chimpanzees. |
List of Readings on Library Reserve
Campbell, B. Human Evolution. Aldine de Gruyter, 1998.
Dolhinow, P. and Fuentes, A. The Nonhuman Primates. Mayfield, 1999.
Fleagle, J. Primate Adaptation and Evolution, 2nd Edition. Academic
Press, 1998.
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